Officials provide update on massive sinkhole near The Dome in downtown St. Louis

[00:00:00]Well, good afternoon everyone, and uh thank you for coming out today to help us uh educate the public on what's going on with the sinkhole that uh has opened up near Interstate I-44, 70, and North Broadway. We are here today in an effort to be as clear and communicative as possible uh recognizing that the public is going to be key to our success in addressing this as quickly as possible.

[00:00:25]Situations like this, of course, remind us that our city's great history comes with aging infrastructure, aging infrastructure that needs support. Um as you all know, we're considering a major water bill uh that will be coming before the Board of Aldermen this Thursday. Uh know this uh sinkhole was not opened up on purpose, uh but certainly does lend its support to that effort uh and the need to have additional funding for our water department to make our city more resilient overall. I want to thank uh Commissioner Greg Favre and his entire team at SEEMA for leading our incident command structure over the last 48 hours. Uh my team and I uh as well as everyone here and many other partners have been in consistent communication uh since the sinkhole was identified on Friday night. I also want to thank our city departments and divisions for working on this issue alongside of our community partners like MoDOT, Spire, and Amaren. Um I also want to recognize some of the partners that are not here today. They've been very involved, um and I want to especially note the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, who's come out uh and inspected the sinkhole to ensure that there's nothing bigger, no other geo uh geological uh um activity going on that we should be concerned about. That's very reassuring. Um it's uh and so I want to make note of that. I'll also note that while Amaren and Spire are not here with us here today, uh they have been uh uh very, very consistently communicative working with us through our incident command and have reassured us that their assets are not currently in danger or uh compromised at this time.

[00:02:10]Uh with that, um I'd like to turn it over to Spencer Gould of the St. Louis City Water Department to speak on behalf of the water division.

[00:02:20]>> Thank you, Madam Mayor.

[00:02:22]Uh Spencer Gould, Deputy Commissioner of Water. Uh as the mayor stated, late Friday evening, June 12th, the water division was made aware of a main break at the intersection of Broadway and Bitner. Uh our crews, our trained team of water professionals, responded immediately. And as we always do with situations in this scope, uh we coordinated with other utilities as well as MoDOT, uh the mayor's office, and everyone locally to ensure to get the information out as best as possible. Uh at the outset, the water division's goal was to stop water flow, make sure that area was safe and dry for other utilities to come in, for the streets department to come in, and MoDOT to uh repair and get into the uh site to determine what the situation was. Uh that isolation was particularly challenging due to the number of valves, that aging infrastructure as the mayor mentioned, as well as the location of the break itself. Uh but we were able to get it down, and as of this moment, uh water flow into that site is minimal, which is allowing utilities to coordinate and respond quickly. Uh fortunately, we do have a good crew as I mentioned, who were able to contract with other con work with other contractors and other utilities in order to ensure that we could do this very quickly. Um you can I will assure you and that they are all calm and capable, and they are lucky we are lucky to have a team that could respond so quickly.

[00:03:41]Um as I mentioned, our crews are working around the clock and will continue to work around the clock uh since Friday and into the future in order to minimize this impact and respond quickly. And together, uh, we're hoping to rise to this challenge and address it, uh, for the city of St. Louis. And I'm going to pass it along to, uh, Director Jackson from Streets, who will talk from a street perspective. Thank [clears throat] you.

[00:04:02]>> Thank you, Spencer. Madam Mayor. Uh, good afternoon.

[00:04:05]Uh, as you know, uh, the details of this incident have already been shared to you. Uh, what you're seeing now is a very effective, uh, coordination through the mayor's office and her emergency, uh, preparedness team, uh, through the chief operating officer and unified command, uh, who have already conducted, uh, two unified command calls to bring together all of the teams that need to actually be in that site, uh, to ensure that we get the situation taken care of.

[00:04:31]Our, uh, streets commissioner, uh, Commissioner Flake, has been on the ground since this incident started. He has additional details for you. I'll turn it over to him to give you some more specific information.

[00:04:42]>> Okay.

[00:04:47]>> All right, thank you, Director Jackson, Madam Mayor.

[00:04:50]Uh, our role in this has as as a street department has been to really just bring the collaborative together of of all the utilities and all the contractors that are working out there.

[00:05:04]Uh, sometimes it's not the easiest to get a bunch of contractors or utilities to to work together in a whole, but but since we started this early and got all of those contractors and utilities on board, the collaboration has been stupendous.

[00:05:19]Uh, we recognize here over the next week or longer that this is going to have significant issues for drivers, commuters, pedestrians, everybody in the area with some road closures.

[00:05:32]Uh, I'll let Jen Way talk about that here in a moment with with the highway closures.

[00:05:37]But currently North Broadway at Biddle, both north and southbound, is closed to traffic.

[00:05:44]Uh, that traffic is being detoured, uh, either east or west on Tucker if it's uh 4th and Broadway or 4th or 4th Street northbound is being detoured either east or west at Washington uh in order to keep that traffic from going up around the hole in where the construction area is.

[00:06:06]Um the biggest thing is that we all work together. We get the message out there that these closures do exist and will exist for a while until this work is completed or at least until it is secured and and stabilized.

[00:06:22]Currently, it is stable but we want to get the hole where it's got some more structure to it than what it has today.

[00:06:33]And So yeah, the biggest thing is just coordination and then our utilities and we're going to continue to work with with those and I will turn it over to Jen Wade MoDOT.

[00:06:48]>> Thank you, Ken. Better mayor.

[00:06:50]Appreciate it.

[00:06:51]So my name's Jen Wade. I'm the area engineer for MoDOT in the city of St. Louis.

[00:06:57]First, I want to start talking about the bridge itself.

[00:07:00]So the hole under Interstate 44 has exposed underground structures for one of the columns that holds up the highway bridge.

[00:07:08]Right now that exposure is not severe but the conditions on site have the potential to continue changing. Keeping traffic off the bridge above reduces vibration of the columns preventing further exposure from developing.

[00:07:20]We are working with the city's contractor on shoring up the area around this column so the rest of the repair work can be done while the Interstate is open to traffic. This effort alone takes time and at this point we are expecting the existing closure of I-44 downtown to last at least through the week.

[00:07:38]MoDOT closes any bridge where the department has structural concerns that have the potential to impact the traveling public.

[00:07:45]With this current repair plan in action, there is reason for optimism that the bridge will remain in good condition throughout the sinkhole repair work.

[00:07:54]So, let's talk about road closures.

[00:07:56]On I-70, only the eastbound express lanes are closed. There are no other ramps or lanes closed on I-70 in either direction as it continues over the Mississippi River.

[00:08:09]There was some confusion about that yesterday, so I wanted to make sure we're very clear.

[00:08:13]The movement from I-70 eastbound that becomes I-44 westbound is closed.

[00:08:20]So, all traffic wanting to go towards downtown must get off at the Tucker Boulevard exit.

[00:08:27]I-44 eastbound toward downtown is closed at the Poplar Street Bridge.

[00:08:33]All traffic heading to downtown will want to get off at the Park Avenue exit.

[00:08:39]Lastly, as Kent mentioned, Broadway on both sides of the interstate is closed at Biddle and over North Broadway for the construction site itself.

[00:08:49]Folks who want to make the through movement from 44 to I-70 or the other direction should consider using Jefferson, Parnell, and Salisbury. Those That road actually continues quite smoothly um around the downtown area and it's um a fairly direct uh detour route.

[00:09:12]Our digital message boards on the interstate are being used to communicate the closure to drivers on the approaching interstates.

[00:09:19]We have pushed uh information out to our state highway patrol and commercial motor carrier partners.

[00:09:25]You can always check the MoDOT Traveler Information uh map for updates. That's at traveler.modot.org.

[00:09:34]Uh we will also be working um with the our event partners downtown as we always do during closures.

[00:09:41]Events can happen with this closure in place. We do work all the time where we need to have closures. This is not an expected closure, but we can still work with folks to get around. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time. Please be patient while we have this closure in place.

[00:09:57]Consider your alternate routes before your trip begins. And everyone drive safely.

[00:10:05]All right.

[00:10:06]Next up Chief Tracy.

[00:10:13]>> So good afternoon everyone. We're working closely with the Missouri Department of Transportation and the city partners and public utility agencies as you heard the other speakers talk about. As crews respond to the sinkhole, we ask make sure we have to take a look at adjusting closures and we'll continue to do that. MoDOT has everything on their site. City has it on their site and SLMPD also on their site.

[00:10:33]Any changes we'll keep you updated.

[00:10:35]Yesterday afternoon we were notified that the interstate needed to be closed.

[00:10:39]District offices and traffic safety offices responded quickly and and safely shut down the affected roadways and then assisted with traffic control in multiple directions. Since that time our offices have remained in close coordination with repair crews to help maintain a safe work environment and support ongoing operations at the site.

[00:11:00]We've also seen increased pedestrian activity in the area with many people coming downtown to observe the sinkhole.

[00:11:07]Public safety remains our priority.

[00:11:10]Offices have been assisting crews as fencing and other access points and protective measures were installed. And then we're restricting pedestrian access where necessary and to keep people out of these hazardous areas. Please, we look for your cooperation to do that.

[00:11:25]There's going to be plenty of media video on those things. Please want to keep you away from those sinkhole that sinkhole and keep you safe. Uh we anticipate a detour traffic throughout the downtown area over the next coming days as motor- motorists navigate throughout the downtown area. Oh, and I ask the community to please plan ahead.

[00:11:43]Look at those Look at those uh GPS website, Waze, uh Google. Uh even myself, when I had to go to a place uh towards North County, uh it redirected me. I would have taken that way with my wife. It actually directed me up Jefferson, and I made it almost the same amount of time, maybe a minute later.

[00:12:00]So, it it is it is good to find these alternate routes. We have good streets.

[00:12:04]We have paved streets in the city, and I recommend people to do that. And Jefferson is that route if you're going to start going back and forth when you get off of uh on 70 or 44. Uh traffic safety officers will continue assisting repair crews, including escorting large construction equipment to the site to ensure those movements be conducted safely and efficiently. And right now at 4:00 uh we're working together with the Missouri Highway Patrol. There's a 200,000-lb piece of equipment that's it's on its way that we're working with the Missouri Highway Patrol to to start getting those things. So, as we're having this press conference, there's people out there working. We're still planning and trying to get this rectified as soon as possible.

[00:12:40]>> [snorts] >> Uh we appreciate the public's patience and cooperation as crews work to repair the roadway and restore normal traffic patterns as quickly and safely as possible. So, with that, we'll take questions.

[00:12:51]>> How confident are you about the stability of that support column? That's one [clears throat] of the things I think everybody has noticed is how close this is to what's keeping the bridge up.

[00:13:02]>> Uh right now, that column's in in good condition. Uh there isn't a problem structurally right now. The problem is that the sinkhole itself has not been stabilized. So, we really want to make sure that nothing's going to change. Um our bridge inspectors have been down there uh a lot since this got started. We're going to continue working with the contractors. As they start to move and act and dig things out of the hole, that's just a continuously changing environment. We want to make sure that um nothing happens. It does take a long time to close this segment of the Interstate. I don't know, five or six at least entry points all need to be touched. So, we need to make sure that we reduce those vibrations, keep folks off, but also we can respond if anything changes.

[00:13:44]>> What does the hole look like?

[00:13:46]>> What do you Sorry, just a follow-up.

[00:13:47]What needs to happen in order to shore up to keep I guess what needs to happen to get traffic moving again?

[00:13:53]>> Sure. Uh the shoring itself is a pretty typical construction activity for anybody. You know, we always have other utilities working in and around the columns that hold up the bridges that support the Interstates. It's something we do a lot. So, um when somebody needs to dig nearby, we often put in um sheet pile or other uh protection underground so that as uh the hole is created, that that material isn't falling away from the columns. Um so, we do have right now more material away from the column than we would like to see. Um but, we're in a very stable situation right now. Really happy to see um the things are holding uh right now.

[00:14:32]>> Jim, any idea how this happened?

[00:14:35]>> Uh I will turn that over to MSD or water.

[00:14:38]>> Yeah, water can speak. So, uh On Friday, June 12th, I believe, uh we found that one of our larger mains, a 20-in water main, was leaking. Uh We responded following a report that we received that water was coming up. Once we went out there and actually started the excavation, we saw that 20-in uh main that was compromised, which was impacting the two other uh 10-in and 12-in mains that are in that same corridor. The combination of all those three mains in conjunction and the water getting out led to some undermining, which led to the sinkhole that we have today.

[00:15:14]>> Is that the 200,000-lb piece of equipment that's coming to um uh pipe for this thing?

[00:15:20]>> I believe the 200,000-lb piece of equipment is a construction equipment, not uh pipe itself.

[00:15:25]>> Talk about the timeline when your office found out that the ground was literally sinking in. Was it from a pedestrian?

[00:15:30]Did you Did you have people over the ground notifying you of that?

[00:15:34]>> The evening of that Friday, I'm not sure the exact timing, but it was the evening that we went out there, saw water coming coming up, and then once it was opened, I believe is when we saw the void space underneath it.

[00:15:45]>> Do you think your office did a good job about closing it off? There's a lot of people still driving by, walking past the sinkhole. It wasn't really that secure.

[00:15:52]>> Yeah, we spent all of today and even going back into Friday and Saturday doing everything we can to ensure that it was safe. We're working with our our contractor as well as PD. We had them come out and assist us, as well as bringing on our own safety officer in order to respond and better set up a safety envelope around that area.

[00:16:10]>> How long is it going to take to fix this problem?

[00:16:12]>> I I'll pass it over to MoDOT. I mean, I think we At this point, we don't know.

[00:16:19]I think what we are doing right now is ensuring it's safe. Once it's safe, we can make a determination of what repairs will be required. I think at this point we're saying at least a week, but it hopefully would be done sooner and could be done longer, but I think the answer is that it's it varies on what we find.

[00:16:34]>> How unusual is the size of a sinkhole of this size? Do you see this often, or is this pretty unusual?

[00:16:41]>> I think a sinkhole of this size is unusual, but not something we haven't responded to and not something our trained team members can address.

[00:16:48]>> Mr. Gulley, you talked about the water rate increase earlier this week at the Board of Aldermen meeting.

[00:16:56]What does What does that look like now in terms of something like this happening, and what do you have to say to any of those citizens, residents who are questioning the increase now?

[00:17:10]>> Yeah, I mean, I think a break like this does not increase that does not change what we will be asking the Board of Aldermen on Thursday, but I do believe the challenges that we see are emblematic of why we put this forward. As the mayor said, I think the city recognizes that we've benefited from this infrastructure for a long time, but the infrastructure is aging and breaks like this are what we've went in front of the Board of Aldermen to talk about. We know that these repairs are needed. I'm never going to promise that we're not going to have a break, but if we can implement our CIP as put forward that we've seen support from from the mayor's office and the Board of Aldermen, we hope that breaks like this are are less frequent in the future and lessened in the future.

[00:17:51]>> Mayor, what is your reaction to this event happening?

[00:17:54]>> And I'll just add on that and I'll answer your question as well.

[00:17:58]You know, with the rates that we've had, we have not had the income necessary to do regular replacement of the the lines.

[00:18:07]These lines were over a hundred years old and we have been replacing lines at a much slower rate than we need to for decades. And so you're seeing decades of deferred maintenance just like in a house, if you fail to do tuck pointing or other things, those those challenges will come home to roost, so to speak.

[00:18:28]And so what we're seeing here is an uptick in breaks as the result of that deferred maintenance. What Spencer discussed and what our water department has laid out with this rate increase proposal is a is the starting of a process to really start to proactively address the water mains and the deferred maintenance that has has been frankly waiting far too long to really invest in. This is a great that's a great starting point. What is my reaction to all this? You know, Elliot, again as I stated in my opening remarks, this is just a reminder of our aging infrastructure, the need for the city to invest in our infrastructure. I'm very grateful that we have a chunk of funds to the the settlement funds that we can start to invest in both our water department and our streets and in general our streets department has uh demonstrated excellent uh leadership through this through both director Jackson and commissioner Kent Flake. Uh but they have a set of aging infrastructure as well. Um and so with the RAM settlement funds we are allocating a serious amount of funds to infrastructure and as a city this is a good reminder of how we need to be prioritizing that infrastructure citywide uh to prevent what's going to be a very costly and exceptionally disruptive uh incident a situation here uh with the sinkhole.

[00:19:50]>> So was this preventable?

[00:19:52]>> You know, I think the way that you prevent sinkholes like this is by being proactively replacing your water mains and that's something that as I mentioned the city has been unable to do not just in the in the near term, you know, this has been going on the entire time I've been on the planet. Uh so you know, when you have that sort of backlog of deferred maintenance it's it is difficult to catch up with um and that's why we're very serious and old we we know that they're all at risk and that is really a challenge for our water department as it and our city as a whole. And so again that really speaks to the importance of the water rate rate increase.

[00:20:57]>> Can I ask a follow-up? I mean what what stops anyone from driving anywhere and falling into a sinkhole at this point?

[00:21:03]>> Well, um uh you know, I mean I think um but we're seeing an increase in sinkholes. Um that's obvious, you know, we're starting to see those so but we're being extremely proactive. Um and I think the key here is just how responsive our water department and our entire team has been to start to address this. You know, when especially when something like this occurs on a Friday night, a late Friday night, and over a weekend, um this crew did not stop. Uh everybody was all hands on deck all weekend long to make sure that we're addressing this. And we're taking the necessary steps as a city and as a set of partners um including MoDOT, fire, Ameren, all of our partners and to uh more proactively address, identify those uh challenged areas, and certainly to react as quickly as possible to restore safety, um and restore the infrastructure that we need for our city operate.

[00:21:57]>> What do you say to commuters who are going to be frustrated by this? And they constantly are seeing St. Louis crumble, literally, in real time.

[00:22:05]>> Yes. Um you know, what I'll say is I'll I'll reiterate um this team's excellence in responding, uh pulling together all partners to ensure that we're not just responding from the streets department, but we have everyone at the table to ensure a holistic response to this situation. We are also as a city very serious about investing, making the investments and the hard choices that we need to ensure that we are investing in our infrastructure better than we have been moving forward. And that starts with the rate increase uh for our water department, which we realize is going to be difficult for our residents to absorb. Uh but we've been very, very thoughtful in that approach by not only identifying the the funds that we need, but but protecting some of our residents that are most vulnerable by carving out a low-income rate to ensure that those residents for whom this is going to be a barrier, we have a path. We're also serious about investing the RAM settlement dollars. We've been working for a year now with the Board of Aldermen to get that alignment to ensure that we can start to invest those dollars in ways that can proactively address these major concerns.

[00:23:12]>> Was this a purely pipes-based issue, or is there something about the geology below that highway that's also adding to the cave-in?

[00:23:21]>> That's a great question, and something we were concerned with as well. As I mentioned on the front end, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources came out and did an inspection of the sinkhole to try to answer that exact question. They are very confident and comfortable at this time that it's not a larger geographical concern, and that should be comforting to all of us. If that were going on, we would potentially have a much bigger challenge on our hands.

[00:23:46]>> Do you know how much it will cost to fix?

[00:23:48]>> I don't. We don't. And you know, as we mentioned, you know, I mean, you know, some of the questions were, "Well, what, you know, how long? What does the solution look like?" Right now, we are still very much uh really securing and understanding the scope of the issue. So, we should have much more information as the week unfolds and as we stabilize the sinkhole and are able to move forward with the comprehensive approach we need to feel confident that we've addressed the situation.

[00:24:17]>> Final question.

[00:24:19]Whose responsibility is it to pay for this? Is this the city? Is this MoDOT?

[00:24:22]Who's putting the bill?

[00:24:24]>> Yeah, I mean, that's something that will really be much more clear in the coming days, weeks, especially as we really truly identify all of the issues going on here and outline all that.

[00:24:36]>> For the police, will there be increased patrols near this area? Will there be any ticketing if you guys do see anyone over there throughout the day, night?

[00:24:46]>> What we'd like to do, as I stated in the beginning, get the cooperation from the citizens in St. Louis or anyone coming from outside. There's going to be enough media attention on it. Please try to avoid the area. We'll be able to get to other places around it and especially getting to the convention center and the dome if if there's anything going on there. We'll have things out there to tell people how to get there, but we'd like to first get everybody's cooperation and it's certainly if someone's trespassing on this on this site, we'll take the appropriate action of any individual that's not abiding by what we're asking and certainly going on to a dangerous site. So, we'll be there directing patrols. We have officers out there and including additional officers trying to do traffic downtown area as people try to come into their commute tomorrow morning and we'll assess each area where we need officers to continue to help people get to and from the city.

[00:25:33]>> We want to thank everybody for your time. We want to allow our departments to get back to work with addressing the sinkhole.

[00:25:39]So, thank you so much for your time.

[00:25:41]Please keep your eyes on social media.

[00:25:42]There will be updates regarding the closures. We also will be sending out a press release after this reiterating some of the main topics. So, thank you all for your time.

[00:25:50]>> Are you guys planning any new additional news conferences throughout the week to keep us